Trisha Yearwood's Chocolate Poundcake

Borders Books is going out of business, as most of you know.  When they marked all the cookbooks down to 50% off, I bought both of Trisha Yearwood's books.  I'm not a fan of her music but when I picked up her cookbooks and flipped through the pages, I was instantly taken with her down home recipes & simple ingredients.  Of course I enjoy all of the baked goods but her dinner recipes also look relatively easy and downright delicious.

This chocolate poundcake is my first recipe from her books.  I really loved this recipe. The result is a very dense not too dark chocolate cake with a nice crunchy top.  You know how brownies form that lightly crunchy, crackled looking top? That's what this pound cake did.  So the top of it has an entirely different texture than the inside and the combination is wonderful.  I couldn't find my bundt pan so I used my tube pan (the kind you make angel food cake with).  I sprayed it well and after removing the cake from the oven and letting it cool for 30 minutes, it popped right out of the pan.  I watched the cake very closely during baking and took it out a little before it tested done and I'm glad I did.  The residual heat baked it the rest of the way. I think it would have been too dry had I left it in the oven longer.  The texture is very dense.  It's a sturdy cake.  I sifted the cocoa/flour mixture 3 times which made the cake have a nice fine crumb.  The only thing I think I would change next time is I would probably bake it on a higher rack. The bottom got a bit too done.  I had my tub pan set on a baking sheet in the middle of the oven.  I think I will place it in the upper third next time.  If you decide to make this recipe, take the cake out before you think it's done. Look for very sticky crumbs. If you pull the toothpick out of the middle of the cake and have no cumbs stick to it at all, it's probably already too done.

My only change to this recipe is I added a large handful of See's Candies Semi Sweet Discs.  They are like really big chocolate chips and the quality of See's Candies is out of this world!

 

Chocolate Pound Cake

Trisha Yearwood

3 cups all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup cocoa

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened

1/2 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

5 large eggs

1 cup milk

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Grease & flour a 10 inch tube pan

Sift the flour, baking powder, salt & cocoa together 3 times. Set aside.

Cream the butter, shortening & sugar until fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the flour mixture & the milk, alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Add the vanilla.

Pour batter into pan and bake for 1 hour (My cake baked for about 1 hr & 20 minutes). Check for doneness with a toothpick. Cool cake in the pan on a wire rack for 1 hour before turning it out to cool completely.